Floyd Talbert

Floyd M. Talbert (26 August 1923-10 October 1982) was a US Army Staff Sergeant who served in Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, US 506th Infantry Regiment during World War II.

Biography
Floyd M. Talbert was born in Kokomo, Indiana on 26 August 1923, and he worked as a carpenter and farmer during the Great Depression. He enlisted in the US Army on 24 August 1942 in Indianapolis, and he trained under Herbert Sobel at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. On 6 June 1944, just before Operation Overlord, he received a package from the Kokomo chief of police that contained a police revolver and encouraging words for Talbert as he prepared to enter combat for the first time. He made his first combat jump on D-Day, and he was accidentally bayonetted by another American soldier. Talbert returned to the company for Operation Market Garden, and he was promoted to Staff Sergeant to replace the promoted Carwood Lipton during the Battle of the Bulge. However, he requested demotion to First Sergeant so that he could stay with his men. After returning home, he became a rubber plant manager, and he became a drifter, alcoholic, and mountain man in California, struggling to find a place for himself. He died in Shasta, California in 1982 at the age of 59.